The Cootie Cutie
by Witherwings4
Summary: The title mostly says it all. Just a cute oneshot on Jim and Pam in school together. Pam is being teased and who comes to her rescue? None other than Jim Halpert


Pam Beesly sat alone leaning against a tree in a secluded corner of the first grade playground, tears streaming down her soft pink cheeks. Her curly chestnut hair was plastered to the side of her face. She looked up slowly and saw that her brand new pink polk-dot socks had mud all over them and she started to cry even harder.

* * *

Jim Halpert sat alone under the shelter finishing his ham and cheese sandwich and grape soda. He stood up, tossed his trash in the trash can, and wandered over to the grass area at the corner of the playground.

* * *

The other boys in Pam's class had been making fun of her all recess and she had done all she could to stand up for herself. Her best friend Suzy was absent from school so she had been eating her snack of string cheese and a grape juice all by herself on a bench next to the sand box. She noticed a boy from her class sitting alone at the lunch table under the shelter a little ways away from where she was sitting. She decided that she would go say hi when she got up to throw her trash away. She thought about him for a minute remembering that he was the nicest boy in class. He always shared his markers and he wasn't all dirty and gross like some of the other boys. She also remembered that he was the cutest one too. She smiled inwardly at the idea that she actually thought that a _boy_ was cute. 

When Pam had finally got enough courage to go up to the boy she was stopped next to the trash can on her way over by a group of four boys from her class. She didn't particularly like them. They were always the ones who disrupted the class by throwing crayons, yelling at the teacher, or coloring in permanent marker over a little chestnut haired girl's drawing. So, no, Pam didn't particularly like them too much.

The boys told her that Suzy was absent because she was sick with cooties. They said that Suzy would probably never come back to school because cooties was contagious and that she would make everybody sick. Pam had tried her best to defend her friend. She told them that Suzy would be back tomorrow and that she just had a cold. To this they retorted back that maybe Pam had cooties too. They told her that nobody would talk to her because of her cooties and that she would have to get shots and that she wouldn't be allowed to play in the sandbox anymore.

Tears began to flow and all she could do was stand there and listen to the boys laugh at her. How could she ever come to school again?

"Hey!" The boy at the bench had said standing up from where he sat. "Stop making fun of her."

With this the group turned to face to boy. Pam didn't stay long enough to see what had happened. She turned on her heels and ran straight ahead to the tree in the corner of the play ground on the grass.

So there Pam was sitting all alone crying after she had been harshly made fun of because they said she had cooties. _What do they know, anyway? They aren't doctors_. Pam thought. She sniffled some more and remembered again that her socks were still muddy, her pants were still wet, and she had been humiliated in front of the only boy she ever thought was cute.

Pam heard footsteps coming from behind and tucked her head into her knees and stared through them at her fingers picking at the grass.

_Go away. _She thought. _Just please leave me alone._

"I like your socks." A small voice said from behind her.

"Huh?" She questioned still keeping her face hidden.

"I-I like your socks. They look nice on your feet." Jim had meant this to be a complement but it didn't come out exactly how he wanted it.

"Oh." Pam looked up and saw the cute boy who had sat at the table and who had stood up for her staring down at her. "Thanks." Jim raised his eyebrows and shrugged playfully. Pam blushed and looked away.

Jim started to walk away and he got a few feet past the tree and forgot something. He shuffled back and turned to face Pam.

"Hey, Pam?" Jim observed her tearstained cheeks, her glistening eyes, her sunlit smile. He held out a hand and she took it. They stood face to face-Pam wringing her hands and Jim tapping his fingers on his pants.

"Yeah, James?"

"I don't think you have cooties." And with that Jim leaned forward into Pam and kissed her on the lips.

Pam blinked her eyes a few times trying to grasp what had just happened. She glanced up expecting to see him standing in front of her beaming. But instead she saw him skipping away in the other direction.

She gazed down at her muddy socks and suddenly didn't care anymore. Despite everything, the teasing, the mud on her socks, Suzy not being at school, she still smiled happily in the direction he had ran away._Today was a good day. It was a good day._

* * *

**Jim and Pam stories where they have grown up together are always cute. I have an idea to make this into a two-shot so tell me what you think. Thanks for reading! Thanks Moony44 for help on the title!  
**


End file.
